Episode 25: Belted Kingfisher – Voice of the Wild

Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon). 

A kingfisher perched along the edge of a lake or stream is a common sight for anglers – besides perching, the kingfisher can also hover a few meters above the surface of the water as it watches for little fish. While you’re listening for their clattering call, keep an eye out for the females; they’re the ones with the orange band across their chest. 

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The following Cornell Lab | Macaulay Library recordings were used in this episode: 

Belted Kingfisher call by Geoffrey A. Keller (ML507256) 

Sources and more: 

• https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Belted_Kingfisher/overview 
• https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/belted-kingfisher 
• Sibley, David. Sibley Birds East: Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America. Second edition. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016. Print. 
• Peterson, Roger Tory, and Virginia Marie Peterson. A Field Guide to the Birds: A Completely New Guide to All the Birds of Eastern and Central North America. Fourth edition, completely revised and enlarged. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1980. Print. 
• Dobson, Colin et al. Field Guide to Hotspots and Birds in Illinois. Champaign-Urbana: Scissortail LLC, 2023. Print. 
• Godfrey, Michael A, John Farrand, and Roger Tory Peterson. Videoguide to the Birds of North America. New York, N.Y: MasterVision, 1985. Film. 

What is Voice of the Wild?

If you learn to listen for them, you will find wildlife everywhere. Voice of the Wild is a podcast about wildlife and the wild sounds they make. Tune in every Friday to learn a new bird song, frog call, or insect noise.

This is Illinois Extension’s Voice of the Wild. A new wild voice in just a moment, so find someplace quiet, take a deep breath, and enjoy.

With an oversized bill and a shaggy punklike crest, this piscivorous bird goes about its business boldly. Take, for instance, its fishing strategy; diving headlong into shallow waters. Before a dive, it’ll spot its prey from a low perch or from a hover held confidently over the clear water. A dashing orange stripe across the chest means you’ve found a female; the males have only the basic blue and white. While they can be found year-round throughout Illinois, they can’t fish through the ice, so in a particularly cold winter, you may have to do a little looking for open water.

This is the belted kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) from the family Alcedinidae. If it catches you by surprise, a kingfisher flying down the watercourse of a creek will disappear beyond the next bend before you’ve even realized it was overhead. Luckily the kingfisher is almost always preceded by its clattering call, so when walking over a bridge be sure to pause and listen for the telltale sign of its approach; in fact...I think I hear one coming now.

Thank you to the Macaulay library at the Cornell lab for our bird sounds. And thank you for tuning in to learn a new wild voice with Illinois Extension.